Welcome to the Warm Colors Apiary website. WCA produces and sells honey, pure beeswax candles, and products using honey and beeswax. We provide pollination services to local orchards and farms. Beekeepers can purchase queens and honeybees, equipment and bee supplies, and attend workshops in the Warm Colors bee yards. In other words, most activities involving honeybees happen at our apiary.

Warm Colors Apiary was founded in 2000 to produce regional honey from flowers in western Massachusetts. Located on eighty acres of woodland, open fields, and wetlands, the land provides a variety and abundance of nectar & pollen plants that bloom from early spring to late fall. Having a location with flowering plants blooming successively throughout the warm months makes our apiary ideal for honey production and the raising of honeybees.

Our mission is to develop, test and use beekeeping methods that improve the health of the honeybee. Through selective breeding, we endeavor to manage a sustainable apiary system that minimizes the use of harmful chemicals and employ the natural defenses and heritable behaviors shown to improve the honeybees mite tolerance and resistance to disease.

Our goals include raising honeybees capable of surviving the rigors of a New England winter and having the individual & social immunities to withstand the stresses associated with honeybee decline. Our work focuses on using the best available breeding stock, providing natural sources of forage and nutrition, and the early detection and prevention of disease and pests. Proactive management that reduces stress and the resulting problems, before they become too serious to correct, is our long-range goal.

We have sold out of package bees and are no longer taking orders for 2019. Nuc sales will continue until the end of January.

PLEASE NOTE THESE DATES: We will be closed on the following days.

January 27th – reopen February 20th  – Please call 413-665-4513 to listen to our open hours. We are often away during the winter months when our bees are quiet. We do open when in town and to provide honey to our stores and schools. We do not want to inconvenience you, so please call and listen to our open hours before making the trip to Warm Colors.

Seasonal Information for 2019

5-frame Nucs are now on sale. Visit the “BEES” page for order form & prices. Tentative pickup dates are the weekends of April 27-28, and May 11-12, 2019. We have sold out of package bees and are no longer accepting orders. We will continue to take orders for Nucs – closing sales the end of January.

Workshop & Event dates now posted.

News:

• Dan Conlon interview on “Beekeeping Today”with Kim Flottum: Dan Conlon: It’s All About The Russians (Russian honey bees, that is)

• Warm Colors Apiary has received the 2018 “Local Hero Award” (farmer of the year) from CISA (Community Involved in Sustainable Agriculture) and a Congressional Award recognizing Warm Colors Apiary for our outstanding and invaluable service to the community from Congressman James McGovern. Bonita & I appreciate these honors from people and organizations we respect and support. CISA and Congressman McGovern promote nutrition, farms, and access to fresh foods for all Massachusetts residents. We share their philosophy that all people deserve fresh, nutritious food. We thank CISA and Congressman McGovern for their ongoing commitment to make local food available to all citizens.

 

Queen test yard #1 – 2018

For the Beekeepers

Warm Colors stocks beekeeping equipment for pickup at our South Deerfield store. We are distributors for Mann Lake Inc. and Starhart Hollow woodenware. We also carry electric fencing supplies from Wellscroft Fences. Although we stock most commonly needed bee equipment & supplies, we encourage customers to plan ahead and order directly from manufacturers. Today’s bee supply model is free shipping (added to the cost, of course) and unless you order large numbers of items their is little savings buying from a local distributor. We do offer advice and suggestions for proper use of equipment – that is something the national suppliers cannot do. Our prices are competitive.

Knowledge + Management = healthy bees.